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[Happosai]

It seems like in the late 80's/early 90's children's media (although video games range through all ages), were being demonized for stupid reasons. One woman in here says she'll have to explain to her child "how marketing scams work (because she was too cheap to buy the then-new $200 Super Nintendo). Seems the minority of those gaming 30-years ago were addicts. It's a short video -- watch it and imagine being one of these children (now a 30-some year old) and explaining how your parents took you you to a Nintendo group therapy session.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Early 90s hairstyles left bigger scars in those children, I’m sure.

But yeah... vidya games reaching that level of popularity among children and the Japanese boogeyman created by the economy of the time made Nintendo the perfect target for this kind of hysteria. Basically the same happened with Pokémon a few years later.

 

[Happosai]

Early 90s hairstyles left bigger scars in those children, I’m sure.

But yeah... vidya games reaching that level of popularity among children and the Japanese boogeyman created by the economy of the time made Nintendo the perfect target for this kind of hysteria. Basically the same happened with Pokémon a few years later.

My parents prohibited my siblings and I from purchasing our first game console until I was about 10. I bought a used SNES at a garage sale with money earned from mowing lawns. My degenerate cousins had every game console (because my uncle was a gamer since the 70's) and my parents were afraid we would become rebellious "hellions" like my cousins. So, my parents bought into this kind of B.S. as a result of being shunned from video games the first 10-years of my life; I never developed a passion for gaming. I'm extremely casual and tend to read more about gaming or watch my wife play than actually have fun myself.
Now, parents are practically encouraged to buy a Nintendo for their kids. Why was this so taboo 30 + odd years ago? Why did the Moms and Dads fear the evil plotting of Sega and Nintendo?

 

[stranno]

90s After Effects skills right there.

 

[nush]

"I'm such a diehard Nintendo fan I needed to go into Nintendo rehab" kids are so casual these days.

 

[darthvargi]

Going to a Nintendo group therapy session is pretty good street cred in gaming circles. I can't imagine how ridiculous they must have been.

This type of thinking was really prevalent in that time period. My parents were pretty reasonable but some really thought this was some health emergency. Not promoting anything but there are two games that play on that era in VR. Pixel Ripped 1989 and 1995. The 1995 one really hit home I imagine for some people that had parents scared of the effect videogames have on kids.

 

[Happosai]

90s After Effects skills right there.

The morons had him racing backwards half-the-time and tried to play it like he did that intentionally.

 

[nush]

Going to a Nintendo group therapy session is pretty good street cred in gaming circles. I can't imagine how ridiculous they must have been.

This type of thinking was really prevalent in that time period. My parents were pretty reasonable but some really thought this was some health emergency. Not promoting anything but there are two games that play on that era in VR. Pixel Ripped 1989 and 1995. The 1995 one really hit home I imagine for some people that had parents scared of the effect videogames have on kids.

My parents used to give me shit about playing games and that I was "Addicted like drugs", it was just some shit they heard off TV. If I had been sitting in my room listening to music or reading it would have been fine, as fine as my parents watching TV all day far in excess of the time I played my Sega.

 

[nikolino840]

There was also a locker for the cartridger space..i saw mmmh..maybe on youtube but i don't remember for what console
Or maybe was a dream.....

 

[Happosai]

My parents used to give me shit about playing games and that I was "Addicted like drugs", it was just some shit they heard off TV. If I had been sitting in my room listening to music or reading it would have been fine, as fine as my parents watching TV all day far in excess of the time I played my Sega.

That's one reason I posted this video in the thread. I know there were more than just you and me who had parents that felt video games were the devil. I literally had to work on my grandfather's farm to get the money to buy all of my consoles and PC games from about 1996-2000. Even as I became a teenager...they still refused them for birthday gifts of christmas. I wonder how many other members on GAF had parents who believed video games were equivalent to hard drugs...

 

[Happosai]

There was also a locker for the cartridger space..i saw mmmh..maybe on youtube but i don't remember for what console
Or maybe was a dream.....

I wouldn't doubt it. The late 80's and 90's were a time when all forms of media started to get censored. TV shows and movies went through a double-censor in some cases (the first being the MPAA slapping a PG-13 rating on something) -- most mainstream movies aired with large portions muted out, cut out, and so on. Music...same thing. I recall the parental advisory labels started popping up on music home videos and CDs. As a result, we had edited music albums. I don't know if they do that anymore, though.

As far as video games...there wasn't much in the U.S. they could do to edit a game. So, that's why the media started garnering ratings and the attention of over-protective parents to make videos like this. It wasn't just this video. Take a look through YouTube. I was also restricted from playing Doom after my parents read that it was one of Eric Harris'(one of the Columbine High School shooters) favorite games in a newspaper. They also took away my KMFDM CDs after media blamed everyone but the parents for the Columbine massacre.

 

[_Justinian_]

Nintendo addicts/fanboys still need therapy today. Nothing's changed.

 

[Northeastmonk]

There was also a locker for the cartridger space..i saw mmmh..maybe on youtube but i don't remember for what console
Or maybe was a dream.....

When Nintendo held consumer based trials to see what each kid preferred, the NES won by landslide. You hear about Pong machines bursting with coins to the point where the machine wouldn’t work anymore, but people can’t handle it when Nintendo comes out with the NES. It was so bad in Japan that the government asked Nintendo to release their product on the weekend.

 

[Happosai]

When Nintendo held consumer based trials to see what each kid preferred, the NES won by landslide. You hear about Pong machines bursting with coins to the point where the machine wouldn’t work anymore, but people can’t handle it when Nintendo comes out with the NES. It was so bad in Japan that the government asked Nintendo to release their product on the weekend.

This is the one retro accessory to the NES that I've literally seen no one collect. Master Lock branded this

 

[darthvargi]

My parents used to give me shit about playing games and that I was "Addicted like drugs", it was just some shit they heard off TV. If I had been sitting in my room listening to music or reading it would have been fine, as fine as my parents watching TV all day far in excess of the time I played my Sega.

That whole thing never made sense. If anything gaming has to be more engaging to your mind than watching TV because you're interacting. I remember it though, gaming for two straight hours was dangerous but watching a football game for over three hours was healthy.

 

[nush]

That whole thing never made sense. If anything gaming has to be more engaging to your mind than watching TV because you're interacting. I remember it though, gaming for two straight hours was dangerous but watching a football game for over three hours was healthy.

I'd state that at the time too, I'm actually doing something not just passively watching the box. Now people brag about marathoning a TV show over the weekend like it's nothing. If you told people you played videogames all weekend you'd get looks and comments.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Now, parents are practically encouraged to buy a Nintendo for their kids. Why was this so taboo 30 + odd years ago? Why did the Moms and Dads fear the evil plotting of Sega and Nintendo?

Because after the crash of 1983, video games ceased to be a thing for grownups. People of all ages used to play at the arcades and with Atari consoles, but the NES had to be Trojan horsed into the US as a toy to disguise it as “totally not a video game console, I promise”. So console gaming was rebranded as a pastime for kids, and when it became big enough, not to mention expensive enough, parents suddenly became concerned. Add to that the tales of “demonic” imagery in games such as JRPGs and Castlevania and you also had concerns about video games corrupting the young and making them easy prey for cults - and that’s with Nintendo doing their best to remove blatant references to any sensible topic, like religion or alcohol. The irony, of course, is that the parents of the time probably used to spend a lot of time at the arcades just a decade or so before.

Nowadays video games are again a pastime for all ages and they’re so high-tech and realistic that nobody has much reason to relegate their console to the man-cave. Few parents also know what to do whit their children when they’re around, so a Nintendo anything is a very good aid in getting some quiet time in the house.

There was also a very compelling argument of economic nature in the rage of parents at the time. Game cartridges were goddamn expensive, games were much shorter than today, there was no online multiplayer, and help lines for gamers were a thing and they cost money that today would be included in your regolar Internet bill. The mom concerned about the need for a new console to play new games did have some kind of a point at the time - you didn’t need a new VCR to watch new films, after all. I guess their reasoning was along those lines.

My grandmother was a very religious woman, and if she could just have her way in my upbringing, I’d probably never even have a NES. She loathed seeing me play games; she was adamant that every single thing wrong in me - from the occasional bad grade in school to me developing nearsightedness - was the fault of video games. I guess that me getting a Game Boy one summer was the final nail in the coffin of her hope that I could at least not play video games when away from home.

 

[TheContact]

Remember how the ESRB was created because of games like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat?

Now they look like this

We've become a lot more progressive since the 90s

 

[Happosai]

Remember how the ESRB was created because of games like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat?

Now they look like this

We've become a lot more progressive since the 90s

I recall having Chiller on the NES as an adult. Somehow, that seemed ever more violent than MK (the arcade version was worse). To me, it doesn't seem like parents today are that concerned over the game ratings. Maybe this is me just sounding old but the kids today seem more spoiled and are just given anything. The type of parents seen in that video seem very uncommon today.

 

[Happosai]

Because after the crash of 1983, video games ceased to be a thing for grownups. People of all ages used to play at the arcades and with Atari consoles, but the NES had to be Trojan horsed into the US as a toy to disguise it as “totally not a video game console, I promise”. So console gaming was rebranded as a pastime for kids, and when it became big enough, not to mention expensive enough, parents suddenly became concerned. Add to that the tales of “demonic” imagery in games such as JRPGs and Castlevania and you also had concerns about video games corrupting the young and making them easy prey for cults - and that’s with Nintendo doing their best to remove blatant references to any sensible topic, like religion or alcohol. The irony, of course, is that the parents of the time probably used to spend a lot of time at the arcades just a decade or so before.

Nowadays video games are again a pastime for all ages and they’re so high-tech and realistic that nobody has much reason to relegate their console to the man-cave. Few parents also know what to do whit their children when they’re around, so a Nintendo anything is a very good aid in getting some quiet time in the house.

There was also a very compelling argument of economic nature in the rage of parents at the time. Game cartridges were goddamn expensive, games were much shorter than today, there was no online multiplayer, and help lines for gamers were a thing and they cost money that today would be included in your regolar Internet bill. The mom concerned about the need for a new console to play new games did have some kind of a point at the time - you didn’t need a new VCR to watch new films, after all. I guess their reasoning was along those lines.

My grandmother was a very religious woman, and if she could just have her way in my upbringing, I’d probably never even have a NES. She loathed seeing me play games; she was adamant that every single thing wrong in me - from the occasional bad grade in school to me developing nearsightedness - was the fault of video games. I guess that me getting a Game Boy one summer was the final nail in the coffin of her hope that I could at least not play video games when away from home.

For the record, I have only purchased new games after their price drops (after about 4-years on the shelves) due to them being so bloody expensive. The console prices in some cases -- I can justify those and really think the parents were just being cheapskates (unless they had like 7 kids and a part-time job to support the family). Many kids in the 80's and 90's really only owned a handful of games due to the prices being so high. However, what I'm not hearing is how taking a kid to "Nintendo therapy" actually helped anything.

Spoiler

I consider psychology as a practice to be a pseudo-science...neurology is the only way to determine mental/social problems.